Posts tagged with 'ucaday'

It’s 20th November 2016, so today marks another Ubuntu Community Appreciation Day. The idea for the event was put together by Ahmed Shams in 2011 and it’s simple but brilliant: once a year (at least), take the time to thank some specific people for their work in Ubuntu.

As I’m at UbuCon Europe this weekend, it’s incredibly easy to pick somebody whose work I’m grateful for. Today I’d like to thank all the event organisers in the Ubuntu world. Without people like Sujeevan Vijayakumaran (in the case of UbuCon Europe), we as a community, wouldn’t be able to get together, learn from each other and have fun together. It takes a set of special skills to organise big and small events, plan ahead, talk to various people and companies, organise sponsors and helpers and it’s something we often take too much for granted.

Thank you everyone who organised the Ubuntu events I’ve been to over the years, no matter if it’s the small meetings in a bar or the crazy big events, like UDSes (thanks Claire, Marianna and Michelle!). You are incredible rockstars and I had some of my best times thanks to you!

The Ubuntu Community Appreciation Day is a really nice tradition and it’s always to think of somebody I could thank (Thanks Ahmed Shams for setting it up in the first place!). Narrowing down my list of thank-yous to just one or two for a blog post is much harder for me. Read more

It is another Ubuntu Community Appreciation Day already and although it’s hard to pick just one person, and I’ve worked with many great people and I admire many for what they do and who they are, today I will mention one person I’ve enjoyed working with a lot. To everybody else: you know there’s always enough hugs for you where I am.

Andrew has helped out in many unnoticed places, never claimed much credit and never stood much in the limelight. Andrew, whose last name is pronounced in many different ways (ranging from ‘Starr-Bow-chick-a-wow-wow’ to ‘Something’) has the talent of turning up unexpectedly, picking up some of the hard problems and leaving a fix for it behind. Maybe it’s because our timezones only overlap somewhat and he’s only occassionally on IRC, I often woke up, looked at my inbox and felt like I just found a present in there.

Andrew has been involved in NGOs working in his local area and mailed me after a short absence that he had been busy helping out on the south shore of Staten Island after the hurricane hit. He also became a MOTU and helped out in many teams I’m involved in as well (Dev Advisory Team, Packaging Guide editors, the early NGO team, etc.)

It’s a pleasure to work with Andrew, he’s relaxed, he knows his stuff, he helps with the hard and unrewarding stuff in the beginning to give others the breathing room and open up the field and he has his heart in the right place.

Thanks a lot for your hard work Andrew, it’s much appreciated!

Big hugs to you and everyone else who make the Ubuntu, Open Source and general world a better place. You all rock!